A bullet from the back of a bush took Medgar Evers' blood.
A finger fired the trigger to his name.
A handle hid out in the dark
A hand set the spark
Two eyes took the aim
Behind a man's brain
But he can't be blamed
He's only a pawn in their game.

A South politician preaches to the poor white man,
"You got more than the blacks, don't complain.
You're better than them, you been born with white skin," they explain.
And the Negro's name
Is used it is plain
For the politician's gain
As he rises to fame
And the poor white remains
On the caboose of the train
But it ain't him to blame
He's only a pawn in their game.

The deputy sheriffs, the soldiers, the governors get paid,
And the marshals and cops get the same,
But the poor white man's used in the hands of them all like a tool.
He's taught in his school
From the start by the rule
That the laws are with him
To protect his white skin
To keep up his hate
So he never thinks straight
'Bout the shape that he's in
But it ain't him to blame
He's only a pawn in their game.

From the poverty shacks, he looks from the cracks to the tracks,
And the hoof beats pound in his brain.
And he's taught how to walk in a pack
Shoot in the back
With his fist in a clinch
To hang and to lynch
To hide 'neath the hood
To kill with no pain
Like a dog on a chain
He ain't got no name
But it ain't him to blame
He's only a pawn in their game.

Today, Medgar Evers was buried from the bullet he caught.
They lowered him down as a king.
But when the shadowy sun sets on the one
That fired the gun
He'll see by his grave
On the stone that remains
Carved next to his name
His epitaph plain:
Only a pawn in their game.

love ol mr. dylan. Saw him, Willie, and Mellencamp when they came to Corpus. Great show! Anyways I don't see how the message of the song can be related to any event that is taking place in todays world. Maybe you can elaborate?

I just think it's important for us to consider each other's point of views. I was listening to this song and just though that sometimes we behave as if we're programmed. I was reading a Tea Party guy's Youtube blog and he basically everyone listening to television is brainwashed except people looking at FOX; Liberals make the contrary accusation. In the end sometimes we're being fed lines and going out like good soldiers on behalf of people that may or may not really care what our conditions are. I just think that, if you're going to stand your ground, it's important to do it after having thought it through and considered various positions; otherwise you're just a tin soldier.

I just think it's important for us to consider each other's point of views. I was listening to this song and just though that sometimes we behave as if we're programmed. I was reading a Tea Party guy's Youtube blog and he basically everyone listening to television is brainwashed except people looking at FOX; Liberals make the contrary accusation. In the end sometimes we're being fed lines and going out like good soldiers on behalf of people that may or may not really care what our conditions are. I just think that, if you're going to stand your ground, it's important to do it after having thought it through and considered various positions; otherwise you're just a tin soldier.

Good point, but credible information is hard to come by. How much is there that we all simply do not know? Sometimes I feel like these issues in the media today (Carter claiming racism, ACORN, Joe Wilson, etc.) are childs play to what might really be going on.

Every great civilization has come to an end. Greed, power, corruption, and moral breakdown were mostly to blame. Maybe we are all pawns on the left and the right. I can't really say there is anyone in Washington that really has our best interests at heart.

The song could possibly be about any one of us, or it could be about all of us.

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Is our defense that good? I think so. And the scary part is that the whole team seems to take a sadistic pride in shutting people down. What is Pop feeding them? They looked brainwashed out there, a single minded machine that just eats up their opponents. -----pjrfan